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Post from: EveryJoe

Amazon Dodging Taxes by Dropping Affiliates

Using my Twitter mug (Image: Flickr)

Post from: EveryJoe

Twitter: A Shopper’s Best Friend?

There are two questions that people have asked me, so far:

• What do your users think about that?
• What does Amazon think about that?

To the first one, I have no idea. That’s really what this post is about – what DO you think about it? Is it alright for Larry to be fetching data from Amazon, that helps Sally get a deal? Should I have made the whole thing opt-in, or opt-out? From a technical standpoint, BuyLater users were already visiting both Amazon, and the BuyLater site (albeit not once every 60 seconds), and there’s no personal info in any of this data, so what’s the difference?

On to the second question – again, I have no idea. But since there were a couple of @amazon.com email addresses in yesterday’s batch of users, I imagine if they have a problem with it… I’ll hear about it pretty quick. Source: How I Built a Free Grid Computer, In Less Than a Week | Cognition

Unrelated to this announcement was Sam Harrelson’s post on how grid computers are the future for all of us which is very timely, I think.

What of Josh’s innovation?  In short, each person who installs the BuyItLater also becomes part of a grid to help with lookups to Amazon for everyone else.  Josh and I talked about this and he details the tech reasons behind it in his post, but from a privacy standpoint, we’re cool.  Innovation wise I think this is doing what the P2P file tools wanted to do, but couldn’t.  Josh is doing something that all the users benefit from, we want to get frequent updates of price changes, but run from his servers alone he ran into a scaling problem, run from all our machines it scales beautifully.

While things like SETI@Home and others have tried to use “spare CPU cycles” for good, it turns out these aren’t really spare, since a computer would just switch to low-power mode if the screensaver wasn’t running.  I see potential here for clustered searches or related tasks, and as long as you stay away from uploads and downloads … things could be just ducky for a long time.

Post from: EveryJoe

BuyItLater becomes a grid computer to help us find and get deals on Amazon

But should it?

Are we just being high and mighty?  Oh we’re Web 2.0, we really “get” the Internet.  I’m not so sure.  I think Jason is on the mark that these folks are really savvy,  but just not aiming high enough.  What if affiliate marketers put the energy towards more of the social media aspects of the Net?

I think this is going to be the focus of our panel tomorrow.  We’re seeing how more and more how affiliate marketers now only need to talk with your customers but among your customers (Deb Schultz just said that in the Bloghaus).

Unfortunately Chris Brogan isn’t going to be able to make it tomorrow and I haven’t seen Justine yet.

Ah, but now … the famous domain auction!

Post from: EveryJoe

Affiliate Marketing is a whole different world

I’ve been on one cruise (to Alaska on Royal Caribbean) and I’d love to take another (even to Alaska again, since I can take some kickin’ pictures now), but getting that sweet deal on a cruise is always important.  Beyond the deal, does this cruise or cruise line offer the amenities that I want/need.  For example for my cruise to Alaska childcare was key.  We wanted to enjoy the cruise as well as our daughter.  Turns out that Royal Caribbean has excellent kids programs, but to learn that my (now ex) wife had to do a lot of research.

This is where TripHarbour will come in.

…Out of that, Tripharbor.com and Tripharbour.ca were born. We really, really want you to find the right cruise. We want you to get the support, knowledge and confidence that you deserve. We want you to be able to interact with Cruising Pros and Fans, to get insider tips, to be able to share your cruising passions and problems and, when the time is right, to book your perfect cruise. We know we won’t get it completely right, at least not right away, but that’s what we are setting out to do. Source: Welcome : Tripharbour Limited

Given Stuart’s rich  background in the travel industry (like starting Expedia.ca), I know that this will become a key resource.  You can sign up on the homepage (either the .com or .ca variety) and join the TripHarbor group on Facebook to get more info.

Anchors away Stuart! And may you have steady wind and calm seas!

Update: Mathew Ingram has good things to say about TripHarbor in his post today

Post from: EveryJoe

Tripharbour Preparing to way anchor to help you find the right cruise

StumbleUpon’s meteoric rise from start-up couldn’t raise money in Canada peaked when it was acquired by eBay earlier this year for $75-million. In the wake of eBay’s decision to write down its investment in Skype, you have to wonder if StumbleUpon will share the same fate given it’s difficult to find a strategic fit with eBay.

The NYT suggests that down the road, eBay “plans to let users stumble through eBay’s vast database of items up for auction”. But the reality is consumers don’t stumble around eBay looking for deals. Instead, consumers know what they want on eBay. And this behavior isn’t going to change just because eBay has StumbleUpon in the fold.

At the end of the day, eBay’s decision to buy StumbleUpon may be based on the same rationale it bought Skype: to keep it out of the hands of Google. While eBay-StumbleUpon makes little strategic sense, Google-StumbleUpon makes a lot of sense. If Google had acquired StumbleUpon, there would have been three options underneath the search box: Google Search, I’m Feeling Lucky and StumbleUpon.

Don’t be surprised if StumbleUpon follows the same path as Skype within the eBay empire. Over the years, eBay has made some savvy acquisitions (PayPal, Shopping.com, 25% of Craigslist and StubHub) but it’s also stumbled strategically by making some strange non-core moves such as StumbleUpon, Skype and Meetup.com.

Post from: EveryJoe

Even More Love for StumbleUpon

According to a story in the New York Times, L. L. Bean, Crate & Barrel and Brookstone have all posted large increases in sales to Canada in the last few months. L. L. Bean said double-digit growth had prompted the company to boost marketing efforts aimed at Canada and to begin advertising here.

Post from: EveryJoe

Rising Dollar Sends Canucks Online

Post from: EveryJoe

Jordan Banks Movin’ On

Q: So, tell me about you. What’s your background?
A: I did computer engineering at the University of Waterloo. I am best known as the author of BrickBreaker for RIM Blackberries :) I am involved in the startup community here, and serve as one of the co-organizers of DemoCamp Guelph and StartupCamp Waterloo.

Q: What’s the history of Well.ca?
A: I started this project as an experiment out of an unused closet in the back of a pharmacy. We didn’t know if people would really buy health products online. The test site grew and grew to a point where we had so many boxes that we had to use ladders to pile them up against all the walls (and even against the only exit door).

Q: You must be excited about finally launching the site?
A: We’ve been waiting to launch our site, Well.ca, for so long now. Chris, our lead programmer, and I have been designing it from scratch, and building health-specific features and product linking. It is always a great feeling to get a finished product out the door. It’s also a bit scary as we find new bugs that we have to fix as the traffic grows.

Q: Is there one thing you’re really stoked about?
A: The big thing we were excited to launch was our new beauty and cosmetics subsite, well.ca/beauty — we didn’t realize how many women there are online, hungry for beauty products!

Q: What have sales been like so far?
A: Our sales are already higher than expected, which has helped us bootstrap to this point. Online drugstores in the States do more than $1 billion in sales per year, and there’s no one doing this in Canada — so we’re just working on growing it right, while still maintaining our vision of being an honest, super-friendly store that spreads wellness.

Q: What’s in store down the road?
A: We’ve got big plans for the future in terms of building communities, increasing personalization, and making the site easier to use.

Post from: EveryJoe

Well, Well, Well.ca Finally Launches

The service provides members with cash rebates when they buy products through the Web site. The rebates range from 3% to 10% with some retailers apparently offering as much as 50%. According to the press release, there are more than 300 retailers offering some kind of rebates through GCR.

Post from: EveryJoe

Rebates All the Rage